Joan Manuel Serrat

Joan Manuel Serrat Teresa (Barcelona, December 27, 1943) is a Spanish singer-songwriter, composer, actor, writer, poet and musician. He was awarded the Grand Cross of the Civil Order of Alfonso X el Sabio "for his brilliant career and his contribution to Spanish culture and art".

His work is influenced by other poets, such as Mario Benedetti, Antonio Machado, Miguel Hernández, Rafael Alberti, Federico García Lorca, Pablo Neruda, Joan Salvat-Papasseit and León Felipe among others; as well as various genres, such as Catalan folklore, the Spanish copla, tango, bolero, baroque and the popular Latin American songbook, since he has covered songs by Violeta Parra and Víctor Jara. He is one of the pioneers of what came to be called the Catalan Nova Cançó . Joan Manuel Serrat is also known by the nicknames El noi del Poble-sec ('the boy from the Dry Town', his native neighborhood) and Nano .

He has been recognized with numerous doctorates honoris causa for his contribution to Spanish music and literature, as well as the Latin Grammy Person of the Year in 2014, among other important awards.

Biography

Childhood

Joan Manuel Serrat Teresa was born on December 27, 1943 in Barcelona. He grew up in the Pueblo Seco neighborhood, in the bosom of a working-class family. His father, José Serrat, was a Spanish anarchist affiliated with the CNT and his mother, Ángeles Teresa, was a housewife from Belchite (Zaragoza). His childhood, in which he was able to enjoy the atmosphere of the streets of his neighborhood, marked him deeply, to such an extent that a large number of his songs narrate the daily life of Catalonia after the Civil War (examples are: "La Carmeta", " La tieta" and "El drapaire" as stereotypical characters from their neighborhood). At the age of twelve, Serrat enrolled as a boarding student at the Francisco Franco de Tarragona Labor University, where he completed the Higher Labor Baccalaureate, specializing in "Industrial Mining", graduating in the milling lathe modality.

Musical beginnings

Serrat studied industrial expertise while playing the guitar as an amateur. In 1965 he graduated in the area of agronomy as an agricultural expert and, at the same time, he appeared on the program Radioscope by Salvador Escamilla on Radio Barcelona, in which he performed the first songs of the. Salvador Escamilla was the one who offered him the first opportunity to appear in public; a short time later, they called him to offer him a contract and record his first album. His first concert was held at the L'Avenç theater in Esplugas de Llobregat (Spain).

He is recognized as one of the pioneers of what came to be called the Catalan Nova Cançó and was a member of the group Els Setze Jutges (he entered as the thirteenth of the sixteen), a group of Catalan-language singers whose referring to the French chanson (with exponents such as Jacques Brel, Georges Brassens and Léo Ferré, among others), and who defended the Catalan language during the Franco dictatorship.

In 1965 his first recording was released, the EP called Una guitarra, with four songs: «Una guitarra», «Ella em deixa», «La mort de l'avi» and "The mocador". In 1966 his second EP Ara que tinc vint anys appeared with the songs: “Ara que tinc vint anys”, “Quan arriba el fred”, “El drapaire” and “Sota un cirerer florit”.

The musician Francesc Burrull collaborated with Joan Manuel Serrat since 1967 making the arrangements of the EP Cançó de matinada, which in addition to the homonymous song includes Me'n vaig a peu, Paraules d'amor and Les sabates. In 1972, Burrull met again with Serrat to arrange the album Miguel Hernández, one of the most outstanding works of the Spanish singer-songwriter, of which Burrull would be the musical director and pianist, at the beginning of the 70s.; His relationship with Serrat lasted until Juan Manuel returned to work with Ricard Miralles, in 1974.

In 1968 he published his first songs in Spanish, with several singles that would be collected on the LP La paloma the following year. At the same time, she was composing new songs in Catalan that were also released in a simple format and later compiled, so that in 1969 the LP Com ho fa el vent was released.

When, in the late sixties, Serrat began to sing in Spanish, he began appearing on magazine covers and making films such as Words of Love (1968), directed by Antoni Ribas; The long agony of the fish out of water (1969), directed by Francisco Rovira Beleta; and My private teacher (1972), directed by Jaime Camino, with a script by Juan Marsé and Jaime Gil de Biedma, some of his followers came to consider him a traitor to the “Causa Catalanista”. He defended himself by saying that Spanish was also his mother tongue, since his mother was Aragonese.

The Eurovision Conflict

In 1968 it was announced that Serrat would be the representative of Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest. As for the song that he had to interpret, two were considered: El titiritero , by Serrat himself, and La, la, la . In the end it was decided that it should be the latter, as it was considered, due to its style, more suitable for the festival. The theme had not been composed by Serrat, but by Manuel de la Calva and Ramón Arcusa (members of the Dúo Dinámico), who, however, based themselves on the poetic style present in Serrat's lyrics, as well as on his own theme: the song to the simple things in life (the mother, the earth, the awakening of a new day, nature...).

But Serrat began to receive a lot of pressure from some members of the Nova Cançó as well as from other Catalan sectors, for appearing at a festival in which he would represent Spain, singing in Spanish. Faced with this climate of complaints, his Catalan-language record company, Edigsa, decided to postpone the release of the second album, Cançons tradicionals.

On March 8, a special program was broadcast on Spanish Television entitled That's right... That's the way he sings... That's the way Joan Manuel Serrat composes, in order to promote - on television - to the recently nominated representative of Spain in Eurovision. In that programme, Serrat sang four songs in Catalan: Cançó de matinada, Paraules d'amor, Me'n vaig a peu and Ara que tinc vint anys, and the three songs he had recorded so far in Spanish: El titiritero, Mis gaviotas and Love poem.

Although he recorded the song that would compete in Eurovision, in a studio and in several languages (and made the equivalent of the current video clips at that time) for different European television channels, on March 25 he announced that he would not go to Eurovision if he did not it was singing La, la, la, in Catalan. The most widespread version -which Serrat has never denied- about the reason for this surprising event was that Serrat had decided not to sing it if he couldn't do it in Catalan, as a protest. For other people, however, it was a publicity stunt. Thus, as indicated by Àngel Casas in his book 45 revolutions in Spain, what really happened was that his representative, José María Lasso de la Vega, tried through this event, for the singer to recover his audience. more Catalan, which was losing little by little. It was about Serrat singing-at least-one verse of the song in Catalan, in his presentation at the festival. The representative thought that the best way to achieve this would be to say that the singer demanded to sing all the lyrics in Catalan so that, later and after an alleged negotiation with the authorities, they would reach an agreement that would allow him to at least sing the long-awaited verse and thus satisfy to the audience "from home". However, this plan failed and her position at the festival was covered by the singer Massiel, who only had a few days to rehearse and promote the song, but still won the Eurovision 1968 award.

1969-1974

In 1969 he participated in the IV Festival Internacional da Canção Popular in Rio de Janeiro, with the song «Penélope», which he composed in collaboration with Augusto Algueró. The song won the awards for: best lyrics, music and interpretation, giving impetus to her first tour of Latin America, something that became a habit from then on. Serrat's success was immediate, especially in Argentina, Uruguay and Chile, a country in which she made her acting debut at the Municipal Theater of Santiago, in a concert that was broadcast live on Chilean National Television. That same year, his first child, Manuel (Queco), was born as a result of his relationship with the Catalan model Mercè Domènech.

As the finishing touch to his successful year, he published the album entitled Dedicated to Antonio Machado, poet, with which he achieved great sales success, despite the veto against him, that prevented even promoting their work on the radio.

He participated the following year, in the Viña del Mar International Song Festival, in 1970 as a guest artist; He was also the protagonist of the program & # 34; Sábados Circulares & # 34;, which had a large audience in Argentina and the countries of the region, for which his fame grew even more in Latin America.

Joan Manuel Serrat presenting himself on Argentine Television Circular Saturdays.

In that same year, My childhood was published. From this last album "salen" two songs modified by Franco's censorship: "Fiesta" and "Muchacha típica", which are released in their original version in Latin America, and in a modified version in Spain. "Edurne" is also from this period, published in 1974, and does not avoid censorship either. At the end of that year, the album Serrat/4 contains another song affected by censorship: "Conillet de vellut" (Velvet Bunny), which is censored for mentioning a sexual relationship. in which three people participate. At the end of 1970, Serrat, along with a group of intellectuals and artists, locked themselves up in the Monastery of Montserrat, in Barcelona, as a sign of protest against the Burgos trial and against the death penalty. Some urban legends affirm that in that confinement he composed the song "Mediterranean", which, in the first drafts of it, he called "I love the sea" or "Son of the Mediterranean". However, this song was composed, like the rest of the album, between August and November 1970, according to statements by Serrat himself, and "on horseback" between the now defunct Hotel Batlle in Calella de Palafrugell (Costa Brava), Fuenterrabía (Basque Country) and Cala d'Or in Mallorca.

In 1971 he definitively released Mediterranean, one of his most important albums. The song "Aquelas pequeñas cosas" belongs to this album, which contains one of his most personal and evocative lyrics. It manages to be, almost a year, continuously, in the list of the 10 best-selling albums in Spain, and several weeks as the absolute number 1, despite the strict censorship against it. Also, he participates for the second time in the Viña del Mar International Song Festival, acting for free in support of the government of Salvador Allende. The following year, he paid tribute to another of the great Spanish poets: Miguel Hernández, in his homonymous homage album .

In 1973, he published the LP Per al meu amic in Catalan, considered by some critics as one of the most successful of his career. Finally, in 1974 the veto on Televisión Española was withdrawn, and he was able to perform a special program, entitled A su aire , which was recorded live at the Alianza del Pueblo Nuevo theater in Barcelona; In this recital he also performed songs in Catalan. He acted himself, in the movie The burned city , directed by Antoni Ribas.

His exile

His critical position with the Franco regime in public did not cease. On July 2, 1973, he was detained for two hours in Pamplona for recalling, during a recital, the recent Motor Ibérica strike that had led to a provincial general strike in solidarity, and he was fined 50,000 pesetas by the civil governor.

In 1975, accused of the murder of several police officers, eleven FRAP and ETA militants were sentenced to death by court martial, six of whom later had their sentences commuted to prison. When the execution of the remaining five was carried out, Serrat was in Mexico and at a press conference he condemned the Franco regime and the repressive measures. In addition, he expressed his solidarity with the position of the President of Mexico, Luis Echeverría Álvarez, who had maintained the Mexican position of only recognizing the government of the Second Spanish Republic, in exile. As a result of these statements, he had to go into exile for a year in Mexico, due to the search and capture order that was issued against him. In addition, as had already happened in 1968, his works were withdrawn from broadcasting and censored. for the regime. In Mexico, without money, he only received financial support from Spain from the singer Camilo Sesto, thanks to which he was able to stay there without hardship.

This situation especially affected his recently released album ...Para piel de manzana, the first one he recorded for the Ariola record company. Furthermore, during his stay in Mexico he was unable to compose any songs; in fact, the album that he released the following year is nothing more than the end of an already previous process. To overcome the situation, he toured with his musicians throughout the Mexican territory, mounted on a bus, named La Gordita , offering recitals at low cost. He has confessed that that was a very hard period in his life, since he lived in the constant discomfort of not knowing if at some point he could return to his land or if he would never return.

His most combative songs date from that time. Although, as already said, he did not compose, he made use of the compositions of other singer-songwriters or put poetry by other poets to music, which allowed him to expose the combative posture that he postulated in those moments of precariousness. There are unofficial recordings in which Serrat sings Modern Mazúrquica by Violeta Parra, Poetry is a weapon loaded with the future or Life is worth nothing, among many others.

He was also unable to tour Latin America, since some dictatorships, such as Chile, had already denied him entry.

Serrat in democratic Spain

In 1977 he published the album-tribute to the Catalan poet Joan Salvat-Papasseit titled Res no és mesquí (Nothing is petty), with arrangements by the musician Josep Maria Bardagí, within the framework of a return to an indecisive and rarefied Spain after the death of the dictator Franco. He did it with fear, because since the amnesty had not yet been promulgated, there was the possibility that he would be arrested and tried. Fortunately, nothing happened and Serrat cautiously rejoined the public life of his country.

In 1978 he married Candela Tiffón and a year later his first daughter, María, was born.

Also in 1978, he recorded his album titled 1978. It was recorded in Madrid at Sonoland Studios by sound engineer José Antonio Álvarez Alija. Finally, thanks to the promulgation of the amnesty law, during the government of Adolfo Suárez, he fully reintegrated into his activities as a Spanish citizen and actively participated in the political campaign in favor of the PSOE.

1980s

In 1980 he released his album Tal com raja (translated into Spanish, As it comes out). That year his father, Josep Serrat, died, which was a severe blow to his personal life. In 1981 he published In transit , with which he managed to reach the top of the Spanish charts and give a mature and renewed air to his work. In that year he returned to TVE, in a one-hour special, under the title Música, maestro . He opens with "Visca l'amor", a poem by Salvat-Papasseit set to music by Guillermina Motta. Later, his concerts are opened with the extension of the arrangements of "Para la libertad", a poem by Miguel Hernández set to music by Serrat.

In 1983 Cada loco con su tema came to light, an album edited by Ariola with great themes and which received the "National Award for Phonographic Companies" 34;, work with which he made a great tour of South America, except Chile, since his entry to this country was prevented through a decree issued by the Ministry of the Interior of the dictator Pinochet. In Argentina, with the imminent withdrawal of the military dictatorship, his recital at Luna Park was a historic event that symbolized the victory of democracy. That same year a double LP was published containing the 83rd tour of Spain: Live. Shortly before, an illegal vinyl record with the same title had been released, which is better known as Serrat al Grec, which consists of the publication of some of Serrat's songs played live; the disk was duly withdrawn. An advertisement for pads where the song "Today could be a great day" appears without the express authorization of Serrat caused his indignation and a conflict with his representative, who ended up losing his position, as the Provincial Court of Madrid ruled in favor of Bartolomé Espadalé, the advertising producer, ordering the dismissal of the complaint filed in 1982 by Serrat.

In 1984 he published Fa vint anys que tinc vint anys, with the songs «Plany al mar» and «Seria fantastic» as main hits, and in 1985 The south also exists, setting poems by the Uruguayan poet Mario Benedetti to music. He also published Blessed, in 1987, a harsh critique of the Christian Churches, both Catholic and Protestant, and of the still remaining dictatorships (Lessons of civility ); and Material sensible, in 1989, a work in Catalan that means the last album that Capgròs would work on.

1990s

Serrat in 1994 on the cover of the Argentine magazine Live

In 1991, he released his album Utopia and in 1994 Nobody is perfect. In 1996 he premiered his double album in homage to his nova cançó colleagues, entitled Banda sonora d'un temps, d'un país, the last album by Serrat to be published in format LP (Ariola, 1996). That same year, he joined Víctor Manuel, Ana Belén and Miguel Ríos to tour all of Spain with the show entitled El gusto es nuestro, which was taken by several countries in America in 1997, being published also on disc and in DVD format.

In 1998 he released Sombras de la China, with arrangements by Kitflus, who also helped in the composition of some songs. After the arrival of democracy in Chile, on April 26, 1990, Serrat held a concert at the Julio Martínez Prádanos National Stadium, where, among other songs, he performed "Volver a los 17", by Violeta Parra, due to his seventeenth birthday. that the singer was prohibited from entering.

2000s

Later, he paid homage to the Spanish-American song in Cansiones signed by Tarrés|Serrat in the year 2000, with adaptations of popular songs from several Latin American countries, and recognized authors such as Violeta Parra, Víctor Jara, Simón Díaz, José Alfredo Jiménez and Enrique Santos Discépolo, among others. In the year 2000 his previous official discography digitized in CD format was published.

In 2002, Serrat published Versos en la boca, in which, in addition to his own songs, after four years, he gave voice with his music to the poets Tito Muñoz, Eduardo Galeano and Luis García Montero.

At the end of 2003, he launched Symphonic Serrat on the market in collaboration with the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra of Catalonia, under the musical direction of maestro Joan Albert Amargós, with the special collaboration of Ricard Miralles at the piano and Roger Blavia on percussion. In this production he presents 15 well-known songs and a new one, the poem by Federico García Lorca entitled Herido de amor that Serrat had previously set to music for Ana Belén.

In 2004, he participated in the Neruda en el corazón project, with a collective album in which he interpreted the Poema XX by Pablo Neruda, with music by Ramón Ayala "el Mensú", the show was presented live in a single concert on July 5, 2004 at the Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona, within the programming of the Universal Forum of Cultures 2004 in Barcelona. Also in 2004, El Periódico de Catalunya awarded him the "Català de l'Any" ('Catalan of the Year') in homage to his forty-year career, in the same year she participated in the institutional act of Catalonia Day in the Ciudadela Park, interpreting Cançó de bressol .

Back in 2004, as part of the Versos en la boca tour, it was rumored that he suffered from some disease. However, when asked by the press, Serrat, with great humor, pointed out: "If the doctor asks me to stop drinking wine, I change doctors." And it is that he was already undergoing, in silence, a chemotherapy process, to try to reduce a carcinoma in the bladder. In 2005 the news of the disease was made public.

After his recovery, he embarks on a new intimate tour with Ricard Miralles performing his classic songs under the title Serrat 100x100, a tour with 150 concerts that begins on May 6, 2005 in Valladolid and ends on December 14, 2006 in San Sebastián in a first stage. On March 15, 2006, he received the title of doctor honoris causa from the Complutense University of Madrid for his contribution to Spanish culture in general and Catalan culture in particular and, ten days later, the Gold Medal for Merit at Work for all his professional career.

Serrat today

Joan Manuel Serrat, during a visit to Casa Rosada, Argentina.

On March 24, 2006, Barcelona City Council awards the city's Gold Medal to Joan Manuel Serrat "for his civic contribution and for the prestige he has achieved as a musician and citizen at an international level". On April 18, 2006 he published the album Mô with songs in Catalan, his first production in that language in 17 years. Mô is the name that the locals give to the city of Mahón, in Menorca, a town where Serrat has a house and spends his summers. During the following months, Serrat toured 48 concerts to promote this new album in Catalonia, Valencia, the Balearic Islands and Madrid, beginning on April 27 and 28, 2006 in Mahón (Menorca), performing 19 concerts at the National Theater of Catalonia in Barcelona and the tour ends on October 4, 2006 in Girona, after which he would continue with a second concert session with his Serrat 100x100 tour.

In 2007 he was awarded the Medal of Honor of the Parliament of Catalonia in recognition of his work in defense of the Catalan language and culture as a member of Els Setze Jutges in the 1960s and as a knight of the Legion of Honor of the French Republic.

Also in 2007 he went on a tour together with Joaquín Sabina called Two birds with one stone, which took them to thirty Spanish cities and twenty American ones and began in Zaragoza on June 29, 2007 and ends on December 18 in Buenos Aires after 71 concerts. In it, the Catalan performs the best songs by the Ubetense while he does the same with the repertoire of the noi del Poble-sec. Of the concerts held in Madrid, a live album was recorded and a DVD with more material that was released in December 2007. The name of said album is, like the tour, Two birds with one stone.

In mid-2008, Serrat resumed his intimate Serrat 100x100 tour for the third time, taking it with Ricard Miralles through some countries in America and Spain, with concerts scheduled until July 2009.

He was one of the members of the Platform for the Support of Zapatero, supporting the socialist candidacy of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero for the presidency of the Government, a platform in which prominent actors, athletes, singers and Spaniards participated.

In 2009 Serrat recorded a second album in homage to the poet Miguel Hernández with Joan Albert Amargós, entitled Son of Light and Shadow, which was released in February 2010 and the Ministry de Cultura de España awarded him the National Prize for Current Music in its first edition. In March of that same year, he was successfully operated on for a pulmonary nodule that had been diagnosed in a routine check-up. He was discharged 5 days later, but this event delayed the tour of his album Hijo de la luz y de la sombra, which finally began on April 23 in Elche.

On December 16, 2010, he received the Memory of Fire award from the writer Eduardo Galeano at the Solís Theater in Montevideo (Uruguay). The prize (a statuette by the sculptor Octavio Podestá) was instituted by the weekly Brecha on the occasion of its 25th anniversary and recognizes a creator who adds to his artistic values his social commitment and with the human rights.

On February 6, 2012, he presented with Joaquín Sabina The Titanic Orchestra, his first studio album recorded with the Ubetense singer-songwriter. In addition, they announced a tour to present the album that would take them to Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, the United States, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic and Spain.

During the tour Two birds fight back in Argentina they record a new live CD+DVD on the stage of Luna Park in Buenos Aires: En el Luna Park which is edited in 2012.

The concert of Joan Manuel Serrat announced on the facade of the Olympia in Paris, on May 12, 2018 (draw "Mediterraneo da Capo").

To commemorate his half century with music, the artist chose fifty compositions, most of them re-recorded and with a great abundance of duets, for the release of an album entitled Antología desordenada that was published on 4 November 2014.

Antología Desordenada is also the name of the 50-year career celebration tour that took place from February 24, 2015 to November 21, with more than a hundred concerts in: Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Spain, France, Portugal, Italy, United Kingdom, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, USA, Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. In March 2016, the celebration of a concert was announced, which was followed by several more in a new tour, to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the mythical tour "El gusto es nuestro", together with Ana Belén, Víctor Manuel and Miguel Rios. This tour covers cities such as Madrid, Barcelona, Granada, Valencia or Zaragoza, from June to October 2016. On October 21, 2016, the double CD and DVD that includes the concert held on June 15 at the Barklaycard Center goes on sale from Madrid.

In 2017 and 2018, the "Mediterraneo da Capo" in Spain, France and South America, it commemorates the 47th anniversary of the mythical album "Mediterraneo". In 2017 and 2018 he suffered criticism in the media for his observations on the lack of dialogue in the Catalan independence process.

In November 2021, he announces his upcoming retirement from the stage after a farewell tour scheduled for 2022 and entitled "El vicio de cantar".

On January 8, 2022, Serrat was one of the singers participating in the solidarity concert Stronger than the volcano, which was organized by Radio Televisión Española in order to raise funds for the victims of the volcanic eruption of La Palma in 2021.

After performing on stages in Latin America and in the main cities of Spain, he offers his last concert on December 23, 2022 at the Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona. His presentation ends with A guitar , the song with which he began his career.

On February 17, 2023, he was named adoptive son of the city of Orihuela in an act held at the Teatro Circo Atanasio Díe Marín.

Joan Manuel Serrat during the concert of May 12, 2018 at the Olympia in Paris (gira "Mediterraneo da Capo").

Its poets

Some of his most successful songs have been poems set to music based on the works of some of the most successful poets of the Spanish and Catalan languages:

• Antonio Machado, who is dedicated to a complete case in 1969: Dedicated to Antonio Machado, poetit consisted of 12 songs that popularized the figure and the work of the poet.
• Miguel Hernández, with two complete discs dedicated to the evocation of his poetic figure: Miguel Hernández e Son of light and shadow (2010).
• Rafael Alberti, the poem The pigeon with music by the Italian Sergio Endrigo and the Argentine Carlos Guastavino in 1969 for the album of equal title.
• Leon Felipe, the theme Vencidos in 1971 for your album Mediterranean.
• Joan Vergés, the poem The vell on your disk Per al meu amic 1973.
• Joan Salvat Papasseit, to whom he dedicated a monograph in 1976: Res no és mesquí. It should also be considered a song-home that Serrat composed, first published on the album Serrat/4, title Cançó per a en Joan Salvat Papasseit.
• Ernesto Cardenal, the song Epitaph for Joaquín Pasos 1975.
• José Agustín Goytisolo, History known in the 1978 album.
• Josep Palau i Fabre, Serrat puts music to the poem Vaig com les aus for your disk Such a rage 1980.
• Josep Vicenç Foix, his poem It's quan dormo que hi veig clar engraving Such a rage.
• Juan Marsé, with whom he jointly writes the lyrics for the song "The Ghosts of the Roxy", from his album "Blessed".
• Josep Carner, of the Catalan poet, puts music to The gall for disk Bestiari of Guillermina Motta and The skirt for Fa vint anys que tinc vint anys.
• Pere Quart, the song Infants including Fa vint anys que tinc vint anys.
• Jaime Sabines, the song The wax. for Sensitive material in 1989.
• Mario Benedetti, the Uruguayan poet dedicates the monographic album South also exists (1985), Serrat musicalizes and collaborates in the lyrics Wonder on disk Utopia (1992) and also on the subject History of vampires included on disk Nobody's perfect. (1994). Also sings to duo the theme Wet paper in the album Life that parenthesis (1998) of Tania Libertad with music by Victor Merino.
• José María Fonollosa, adapts the poem Subway I for the song For dignity included in Nobody's perfect..
• Eduardo Galeano, the topics Secret woman in Shadows of China and The bad streak on disk Verses in the mouth.
• Joan Barril, with the journalist and writer from Barcelona, Serrat writes songs Salam Rashid in 1989 and Look at me and don't touch me in 1992.
• Luis Cernuda, adapts a poem by the Sevillian poet for the theme More than anyone engraved on his disk Shadows of China in 1998.
• Tito Muñoz, Tarrés on disk Songs (2000) When I was mad in Verses in the mouth (2002).
• Luis García Montero, theme Lord of the night on your disk Verses in the mouth.
• Federico García Lorca, the poem Beauty of love in Symphonic Serrat, which previously recorded Ana Bethlehem on her album Lorquiana.
• Pablo Neruda, Serrat participates with other artists in the Neruda project in the heart, singing the XX poem.

Their musicians

Joan Manuel Serrat, throughout his career as a singer and composer, has been accompanied by renowned musicians in Spain. The painstaking teamwork that these musicians and Serrat apply to each of the productions are aspects that the public greatly appreciates, to the point that the person who signs the arrangements does not go unnoticed. The five most important are, in view of their importance: Ricard Miralles, Josep Mas "Kitflus", Josep Maria Bardagí, Francesc Burrull and Antoni Ros-Marbà, who were in charge of a large part of the arrangements of their records.. Other musicians who have also arranged for Serrat include Juan Carlos Calderón (Mediterranean) and Joan Albert Amargós (Symphonic Serrat and Hijo de la luz y de la shadow). The Majorcan guitarist and personal friend Gabriel Rosales (Barcelona, 1942; Palma, 2015), whose musical imprint was evident in many of the best-known works in the early days of his musical career.

Joan Manuel Serrat in Valencia in 2008.

The band that accompanies him on the 2015 tour Antología Desordenada is made up of Josep Mas "Kitflus" on keyboards, Ricard Miralles on piano, Vicente Climent on percussion, David Palau on guitars, and Rai Ferrer on bass and double bass.

Serrat and popular culture

Within the Serratiano repertoire, several albums especially rescue popular songs, including Cançons tradicionals, an album released in 1968 (reissued in 1973, on an EP), a set of popular folklore songs Catalan. In addition, from the popular Catalan songbook, he has also sung the lullaby La lluna, la pruna (lullaby) that he interprets during the recording of the special A su aire for Televisión Española on 1974, in Barcelona. The album Cansiones , signed by Tarres | Serrat, his alter ego, in which he records a Spanish-American catalog, with the interpretation of authors such as Violeta Parra and Víctor Jara. Various sources indicate that this record was projected for the seventies, but the convulsions of the time caused this project to be postponed.

Serrat has performed live other songs from the popular Latin American songbook in his presentations, among others, Volver a los 17 by Violeta Parra, performed at the concert he offers at the National Stadium of Chile in 1990, after seventeen years of forced absence as a result of the prohibition that weighed against him by the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. At that time Serrat expressed that that song had a new reading: he was indeed returning to a country, after seventeen years of being denied entry. From Atahualpa Yupanqui's songbook he has interpreted La tarde, Milonga del solitario, Coplas del payador perseguido, Milonga del peón de campo i>, Song of the bakers, Luna Tucumana, Zamba del grillo, Caminito del Indio and Weed seller.

Serrat and the copla

The copla is one of the reference genres in Serrat's musical education: he listened to it on the radio and heard it sung by his mother and his neighbors when he was a child, as he stated in many interviews. The voices of Concha Piquer, Juanita Reina, Miguel de Molina, Angelillo or Juanito Valderrama are part of his personal soundtrack. He personally attended the funeral of Concha Piquer and wrote the prologue to the book Juanito Valderrama: My Dear Spain by Antonio Burgos. Palmo or Pueblo blanco, could be considered close to this genus.

She has shared the stage with Juanito Valderrama, Lola Flores (interpreting Pena, penita, pena), Rocío Jurado (singing the Hymn of Andalusia), she has sung solo the couplets Don't love me so much and La niña de puerta oscura, among others. He has recorded a duet with Manolo Escobar, the pasodoble Qué bonito es Badalona, with Juanito Valderrama the song Pena mora on the album Homage to Juanito Valderrama, the copla Antonio Vargas Heredia in a duet post mortem with Carlos Cano on the tribute album Que navegan los sueños, or his later tribute to the figure de Bambino on the album Bambino, por ti y por nosotros, show their musical ties to the artists who gave artistic height to the couplet.

Serrat and the tango

Another of the genres found in Serrat's musical memory is tango, through his father, a great fan of it. Already professionally, Serrat demonstrates his love for tango by performing it on numerous occasions, especially on his visits to Argentina:

• Cambalache by Enrique Santos Discépolo, during various concerts of the 1983 tour in Spain that was recorded in his live album (1984).
• The last organ in Songs (Tarrés) (2000).
• Fangal in Songs (Tarrés) (2000).
• South (1970) - Caño 14 de Buenos Aires (with Aníbal Troilo)
• To Buenos Aires (1970), in the Argentine television programme Circular Saturdays.
• Friendly (34 stabs) in 1985, in the TV3 program Cap d'any.
• Melody of arrabal (1988), live at the Teatro Albéniz in Madrid, with the Orquesta De Osvaldo Pugliese.
• Malena (1990) in the programme Dear Cabaret TVE.
• Margot (1990) in the same program Dear Cabaret TVE.
• Tacone (1990) in the same program Dear Cabaret TVE.
• None (to capella in 1990) Dear Cabaret.
• When you get me to fail and Afiche (2000), a cappella in Troesma Programme.

Serrat and the bolero

The bolero is also a genre with relevance due to its popularity in Spain between the 1940s and 1960s, years of Serrat's childhood and early youth. Its means of diffusion was the radio, like the previous genres. The voices of Antonio Machín, Juanito Segarra, Bonet de San Pedro, Jorge Sepúlveda, Lorenzo González and José Guardiola reached every corner.

Serrat and the radio

In 1990 Serrat made the program La radio con botas for Radio Nacional de España, in which he reviewed Spanish society from 1939 to the eve of the magical 1992.

Football

Serrat admits to being a follower of Barcelona Football Club of Spain, Boca Juniors of Argentina, Peñarol of Uruguay, Independiente Santa Fe of Colombia and the University of Chile. On several occasions he has interpreted the Hymn of &# 39;'Barca''. Especially remembered is the one he performed at the commemorative act of the centenary of the Catalan club in 1999. He dedicates a song to Ladislao Kubala, a Barça player, with two versions in Catalan and Italian. He also immortalizes the forward of the club with & # 34; Basora, César, Kubala, Moreno and Manchón & # 34; in a verse of his song Temps era temps ( Once upon a time ).

Tourism: Serrat's Barcelona

Commemoration of the place of birth.

Serrat lived throughout his childhood at no. , a commemorative plaque on the façade of the estate indicates the anniversary. The house was immortalized in the song Si hagués nascut dona (If I had been born a woman) recorded on his CD Mô and on the " balcony with basil" from the song My childhood.

El Pueblo Seco is located next to Chinatown (now better known as El Raval), an area that in the 40s, the first years of Serrat, brought together a whole set of characteristic elements for which it was known: its port environment and worker, its brothels and also for being a place of entertainment as it is an area of cabarets, theaters and café-concerts, especially on the mythical Avenida del Paralelo, which separates El Pueblo Seco from El Raval. The misery that shook its inhabitants in those post-war years stands out, memories of a gray childhood, painted with the brushes of the dictatorship, are the ones that return to Serrat's mind about those years. There the artistic airs of a small Paris were breathed, an environment that little by little became more and more decadent, which profoundly influences the formation of Serrat's personality.

El Pueblo Seco has always been a popular neighborhood, a neighborhood on the shores that has been absorbing the waves of emigrants who have arrived (first of Spanish origin and at the beginning of the century XXI from all over the world), from people who come to work and in contact with the people of this land gives rise to this rich mixture.

Serrat's family was one more example, an Aragonese mother and a Catalan father, belonging to the side of the losers in the Spanish Civil War, a very important biographical detail that undoubtedly marks a certain character in Serrat as a child and adolescent, a position culture and coexistence with the environment in that first stage of personality development and that has consistently been maintained throughout life.

Serrat was born in 1943 and spent his childhood in the post-war years in his hometown, which is located on the slope of the Montjuic mountain, in the same area where barracks were built where immigrants lived in overcrowded conditions, on the border with El Pueblo Seco.

The Montjuic Trade Fair was built to host the 1929 International Exposition, a historic event for the city of Barcelona, in which a large part of the Montjuic mountain was reformed and urbanized. This fact is reflected in the song Por las paredes but from the perspective of the suffering and effort of thousands of migrant workers: «With Murcian and Almería blood an exhibition was built». Workers who are also honored by Serrat in Caminito de la obra or in Els veremadors. Currently, the entire Montjuic mountain that dominates the El Pueblo Seco neighborhood forms a green and clean landscape with parks, museums, sports areas and leisure areas in what is the largest recreational area in the city, the positive part of the progress that now makes the neighborhood unrecognizable to the memories of Serrat.

A tourist guide to Barcelona published on the official website of the Barcelona City Council as a tourist attraction for the city with its different itineraries allows us to recognize in detail in several itineraries all the curiosities of the Barcelona of Joan Manuel Serrat.

Repercussion, tributes and criticism

There are many artists and songwriters who have paid tribute to the figure and work of Joan Manuel Serrat. Among the most notable are Aí te mando mi guitarra, Juan Manuel , composed by Manuel Alejandro and performed by Blanca Villa while Serrat was in exile due to his statements against the death penalty; the recent Maldito Serrat by Argentine singer-songwriter Ignacio Copani; My cousin the Nano , composed by his friend Joaquín Sabina, and the Canción para un maño , a theme by Georges Brassens adapted by Paco Ibáñez. There are also tributes from the world of photography, such as the case of his close friend Colita.

Apart from these songs that deal monographically with the figure of Joan Manuel Serrat, there are others that mention the name of Joan Manuel Serrat or one of his songs. These are the cases of Alberto Cortez in his live version of I'm not from here, of Joaquín Sabina himself when he recorded I don't do anything else but think about you on the album Serrat, you are unique, of Suspects Involved in "Ser de agua" or singer-songwriters such as Juan Carlos Baglietto, Fito Páez, Javier Ruibal, Víctor Heredia, Fernando Delgadillo, Ricardo Arjona, Amaury Pérez, Vicente Feliú, Alejandro Filio, Kiko Tovar, Cacho Duvanced, Ramiro Segrelles, Joan Isaac, Guillermina Motta, Gerardo Peña, Hernaldo Zúñiga, Liuba María Hevia, Alejandro Nardecchia, Miquel Pujadó, Joan Baptista Humet, among others.

In this section we can also mention the lyrics of Sóc el millor, which Francesc Pi de la Serra composed, although more than in homage it was a harsh criticism of Serrat for his decision to play Joan Manuel de also sing in Spanish. Also noteworthy is the humorous version of the song Ara que tinc vint anys, which La Trinca recorded with a change in the title: Ara que tinc 80 anys.

Some awards and recognitions received

• Silver frames to the best musical activity (1970 and 1972).
• Special Ondas Award of the Organization for its professional career in the history of Spanish popular music in 1995.
• Doctorate honoris causa por la Universidad Nacional del Comahue (Neuquén, Argentina) en 1999.
• Doctorate honoris causa por la Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos de Cuernavaca (Morelos, Mexico), el 16 de mayo de 2003.
• Golden Microphone Award in 2003.
• Doctorate honoris causa por la Universidad Nacional de Córdoba (Argentina), el 25 de noviembre de 2005.
• Doctorate honoris causa por la Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (Mexico), el 12 de enero de 2006.
• Doctorate honoris causa por la Universidad Complutense de Madrid, el 15 de marzo de 2006.
• Gold Medal of Barcelona City, March 24, 2006.
• His theme “Mediterranean” was chosen as the best song in the Spanish language of the centuryXX. by the magazine Rolling Stonein 2006.
• Gold Medal to Merit at Work for its entire career, March 25, 2006.
• Medal of Honor of the Parliament of Catalonia, in 2007.
• Doctorate honoris causa por la Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche, el 21 de mayo de 2010.
• National Prize for Current Music in 2010.
• Order of the Aztec Eagle to the degree of insignia, by the federal government of Mexico in 2010.
• Barcelona City Music Award for his work "Son of Light and Shadow", 2010.
• Doctorate honoris causa by Pompeu Fabra University of Barcelona, on 14 June 2011.
• Doctorate honoris causa por la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, el 22 de septiembre de 2011.
• Luna Award of the National Auditorium as the best Latin American show next to Joaquín Sabina, 2013.
• Latin Grammy, honorary prize as a person of 2014.
• Ondas Award for his artistic career in 2014.
• Doctorate honoris causa por la Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México, el 13 de octubre de 2015.
• Premio Cortes de Cádiz, 2015.
• High distinction of the Generalitat Valenciana
• Gran Cruz de la Orden de Jaime I el Conquistador, 2017.
• Doctorate Honoris Causa by Universidad Nacional de Rosario (UNR), October 7, 2017
• Doctorate Honoris Causa by the University of Zaragoza, February 28, 2020.
• Grand Cross of the Civil Order of Alfonso X el Sabio, December 8, 2021.
• Odeon Award 2022, March 15, 2022.
• Doctorate Honoris Causa by the University of Costa Rica, May 28, 2022.
• Premio Rojana Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, 2022.
• Beato Award of Lebanese International Cohesion, 2022.

Translations

Joan Manuel Serrat translated some of the compositions he wrote in Catalan into Spanish to perform them for Spanish-speakers, including Anywhere (En qualsevol lloc), Rainy Weather (Temps de pluja) and Words of Love (Paraules d'amor).

On the other hand, Joan Isaac, on his album Joies robades (2002), recorded with Serrat in Catalan Aquelas pequeños cosas.

In Italy in 1968 Serrat recorded a single in Italian, with the songs Io canto ("La-la-la-la") and "Poema" ("Love poem").

Mina sang many of Serrat's songs: the first in 1969 was La tieta, titled in Italian Liar and unconscious; In 2007 she did a duet with Serrat on his album Todavia en la canción Sin pietà .

Gino Paoli also recorded some of Serrat's songs: the first in 1972, Sogno di youth (Paper Boat), with lyrics in Italian by Paolo Limiti; then in 1974 he recorded an album of translations Gino Paoli sings Serrat . Finally, in 1996 he recorded another famous piece by Serrat, Penélope , in Italian El vestido rojo , on his album Misappropriation .

Francesco Guccini sang a Modenese dialect version of La tieta.

In Israel, singer David Broza recorded a CD with Serrat's songs translated into Hebrew. The most successful was "The woman I want" (Ha isha she iti, in phonetics)

Main discography

The entirety of his discography on vinyl was released in compact format in 1990, 2000 and 2007. His last full-length album released on vinyl was Banda sonora d'un temps, d'a country.

• Ara que tinc 20 anys (Edigsa, 1967)
• Traditional cançons (Edigsa, 1968)
• Com ho fa el vent (Edigsa, 1968)
• The pigeon (Zafiro/Novola, 1969)
• Dedicated to Antonio Machado, poet (Zafiro/Novola, 1969)
• My childhood (Zafiro/Novola, 1970)
• Serrat/4 (Edigsa, 1970)
• Mediterranean (Zafiro/Novola, 1971)
• Miguel Hernández (Zafiro/Novola, 1972)
• Per al meu amic (Edigsa, 1973)
• Children ' s song (Zafiro/Novola, 1974)
• For apple skin (Ariola, 1975)
• Res no és mesquí (Edigsa, 1977)
• 1978 (Ariola, 1978)
• Such a rage (Ariola, 1980)
• Transit (Ariola, 1981)
• Every fool with his theme (Ariola, 1983)
• Fa 20 anys que tinc 20 anys (Ariola, 1984)
• Live (Ariola, 1984)
• South also exists (Ariola, 1985)
• Blessed (Ariola, 1987)
• Sensitive material (Ariola, 1989)
• Utopia (Ariola, 1992)
• Nobody's perfect. (Ariola, 1994)
• Banda sonora d'un temps, d'un país (Ariola, 1996)
• Shadows of China (Ariola, 1998)
• Songs (Ariola, 2000)
• Verses in the mouth (Ariola, 2002)
• Symphony (Ariola, 2003)
• Mô (Ariola, 2006)
• Son of light and shadow (Sony, 2010)
• In Fine Arts (Sony, 2015)

Collective tribute albums

• Several: Serrat, you're unique. (BMG Ariola, 1995)
• Several: Before the dogs arrive (Whitehill Records, 2003)
• Several: Serrat, you are unique (volumen 2) (BMG Ariola, 2005)
• Several: Cuba sings to Serrat (Discmedi, 2005)
• Several: Per al meu amic Serrat (Discmedi, 2006)
• Several: Cuba sings to Serrat (volumen 2) (Discmedi, 2007)
• Several: Ma'am: They sing to Serrat (Discmedi, 2009)
• Several: Songs: Flamenco artists sing to Serrat (Universal Music, 2011)
• Several: Children of the Mediterranean (Warner Music, 2019)

Filmography

The film career is still an anecdote within his artistic career in the world of music, and it developed in a timely manner at the end of the 60s and the beginning of the 70s, Serrat himself admits that it was never A great actor. Some of his songs have also been chosen for the soundtrack of other films, one of the most outstanding was Things that make life worthwhile, a film by Spanish director Manuel Gómez Pereira, whose protagonist it was the actress, singer and friend of Joan Manuel Serrat, Ana Belén; in this film his theme appeared Today can be a great day . The films in which Serrat has participated as an actor are:

• Words of love (1968) by Antoni Ribas
• The long agony of fish out of the water (1970) de Francesc Rovira Beleta
• My particular teacher (1972) by Jaime Camino
• The burning city (1976) by Antoni Ribas
• La Argentina de Tato (2000) non-conventional Argentine documentary by Sebastián Borensztein
• The symbol and the yacht (2013), with Joaquín Sabina de Francesc Relea